What Could Possibly Be Hampering The Popularity of Lewis Hamilton?

Five-time world champion, frequent race-winner, constant pole-position clincher, and above all, the most consistent driver on the grid- is that how you would ideally describe Lewis Hamilton?

Or, would stating- if there’s a driver who has shown Ferrari to be a team that seems quite amateurish in front of Mercedes-power, then it’s Lewis Hamilton- may prove a case in point?

Regardless, Lewis Hamilton has already done a lot to the sport in terms of quite simply raising the bar of the competition. In the modern annals in the sport, Lewis is that benchmark for a driver’s perfectness. In fact, only a few hours back did his team principal suggest that he may possibly be the ‘greatest driver to have ever existed!’ One wonders, how does that make the Stevenage-born driver feel about himself?

But all said and done, there does appear to be something that is spoiling the popularity of Lewis Hamilton, adding a sort of sour taste to what has hitherto been a tremendous success story.

So what is it?

Well, there’s (a bit of) talk out there in the circles where Lewis Hamilton is extremely popular that thanks to some negative publicity in the motor-racing media, the popularity of the famous Mercedes driver could be taking a beating.

And on that note, if one were to talk specifically of the British F1 fans, then it’s being felt that Lewis Hamilton isn’t all that popular. And why’s that? Since every now and then, there’s seems to be some criticism based on Lewis Hamilton, whether on track or off it, which is adding to souring the whole Hammertime vibe.

Truth be told, the 2018 world championship winning driver’s boss at Mercedes, Toto Wolff is himself critical of the whole publicity being built around his British driving ace. The Austrian is of the opinion that the real greatness of Lewis could well be measured on the day of his retirement or in the period thereafter.

He was quoted as having shared the following:

In general, in the United Kingdom, Lewis is not recognized how he should be recognized,” the Austrian was quoted by GPFans.com.

“One day he’s going to stop his career with multiple records and people will say ‘he was the greatest driver on the planet and we were witnesses of that journey, wasn’t he an interesting personality with all the things he did?”